One simple question - How does "Add Friend" help me grow my forum and the information qualitatively and quantitatively? Please convince me.

And as far as I know with my association with CarWale, its a technical forum to discuss technical things. It has no where, absolutely no where any kind of topic or discussion which says or projects an image of "Social Networking" site thing. "Add Friend" option looks more apt to Social Networking sites because there you want to grow your network and then you are interested in any kind of information. Here, its opposite, you come to the forum looking for information and then get into a network of CarWale Family which is open to all.

And when I say CarWale Family, mind it, I would not allow anyone to create differences in my family by giving such options. You agree or not but it does create differences. So this option is mostly ruled out straight forward for reasons explained above.

If anyone still wants to discuss this further, please, please first answer my question in first line and then discuss it further. Otherwise, keep out of thread.

Those who claim that they know everything do not know what they dont know.

Second Anshu here. The Add friend option will turn this forum into a social networking website than it being a technical discussion forum. Social networking is not what this forum is for. It for people to come on-board and ask their doubts majorly relating to automobiles though there is some scope for discussing non automobile topics in the general discussion section.

EDIT - we truely appreciate that you want to get to know the members on a more personal front and for that we have 2 options -

1. use the PM service (will be active only after you have made 100 posts)

2. be a part of the carwale member meets that happen at a local and national level.

If you like the reply given by a member and find it useful, use the 'Like this post' button (thumbs up) at the bottom of that post than making a post just to thank that person

There is the third and best way - Be the member of CarWale family in various threads and you would be friend with everyone.

Have I met centaur till date? Do I know how sanshiranand looks like? But still they are my fellow mods and friends. If anything personal I need to talk I use PM. Thats enough. Isnt it? With only these options my purpose of being in CarWale is served - To learn about Cars and and share what I know about Cars. And I just dont feel that we need "Add Friend" option for that. Period.

Those who claim that they know everything do not know what they dont know.

Alright. Let me explain it in a different way. How do you make friends? You meet some person, start talking on a topic, then discuss it even more, then you find that your thoughts are similar and then you get more close and depart as friends. That is what is happening here as well right? You come to a group (carwale) ask them a question to discuss something, they answer, if you have any questions or recommendations you ask them, some other member from the group might ask you something and the interaction increases. You realise that you and this group have a lot in common and develop a liking towards the group or say particular members in the group. Thats how it develops right? There are people who come, ask and go but that is their choice. If you want to develop friends here you need to stick around for a while, participate in the forums (by asking or contributing) and have interactions. Gradually you know the members without knowing them in person. Then in between we have the carwale meets, sometimes in cities sometimes at a national level, where you get to meet the people in person. So you can leverage that too. Let me ask you one more question. You might be having many friends. Have you become friends with them by 'adding' them in some social networking site? Even if it is, then that might be a one-of incident. You become friends and then add them on some social networking site. You dont add people and them become friends.

Again the main intention and goal of this forum is to help people with respect to car irrespective of them being friends of not and the forum is serving that purpose to the T. For social networking you have many other sites and if you want to have some member from here in your network you can ask them if they are interested in it and then share the details. My explanation might seem to be a kind of pravachan but I hope it has cleared the problems.

If you like the reply given by a member and find it useful, use the 'Like this post' button (thumbs up) at the bottom of that post than making a post just to thank that person

The suggestion being made for this feature to increase the rapport between the members and thus develop a passionate environment for the new members.

I'm just thinking loud now.....Why am i here? 1st Reason: I'm passionate about cars. 2nd reason: I visited this forum in my decision making process of WHICH DIESEL CAR? Team members helped. I decided on Fiat Punto Emotion. My work is done. But why am i still here? Because of 1st reason.

But where as, consider the second set of people who visit our forum for just 2nd reason. They get clarifications they required. Thats it. He leaves the forum. I'm not talking on behalf of these type of people.

The suggestion being made for this feature to increase the rapport between the members and thus develop a passionate environment for the new members.

Can you please explain how having an 'add friend' button is going to increase the rapport between members and make it more passionate. Say the 'add friend' option is introduced. I add you as a friend. Then?

Also the second set of people come here for the sole purpose of making a buying decision and not because they want to discuss about cars or are passionate about them. Like you said you stayed back because you are passionate about cars and your passion IMO should not change irrespective of having the add friend option right?

If you like the reply given by a member and find it useful, use the 'Like this post' button (thumbs up) at the bottom of that post than making a post just to thank that person

One simple question - How does "Add Friend" help me grow my forum and the information qualitatively and quantitatively? Please convince me.

And as far as I know with my association with CarWale, its a technical forum to discuss technical things. It has no where, absolutely no where any kind of topic or discussion which says or projects an image of "Social Networking" site thing. "Add Friend" option looks more apt to Social Networking sites because there you want to grow your network and then you are interested in any kind of information. Here, its opposite, you come to the forum looking for information and then get into a network of CarWale Family which is open to all.

And when I say CarWale Family, mind it, I would not allow anyone to create differences in my family by giving such options. You agree or not but it does create differences. So this option is mostly ruled out straight forward for reasons explained above.

.....

Have I met centaur till date? Do I know how sanshiranand looks like? But still they are my fellow mods and friends. If anything personal I need to talk I use PM. Thats enough. Isnt it? With only these options my purpose of being in CarWale is served - To learn about Cars and and share what I know about Cars. And I just dont feel that we need "Add Friend" option for that. Period.

I think this reply sums it up. IMO, any new member that joins here will be considered as a friend itself. It is just that the friendliness increases once people are regular, and once people start helping each other in various queries. Even if an 'Add friend' option would be there, tell me how many people will accept your request without knowing you? Speaking on the lines of facebook etc, I do not accept unknown requests. Same way, its better you introduce yourself in the open forum, get along in the discussion, gain/share knowledge and build up a rapport with members.

Dear Nithrath, I think CW already has a passionate environment for discussions. Moderating is limited to the extent of maintaining quality of discussions and we do not prevent new members from posting, or otherwise. Please do stay back with us, and you shall surely build up friendships as time passes by. It is not as simple as adding a friend

There are members here who contribute regularly, and virtually we are all friends. Instead of creating sub-circles within this community by maintaining a selected list of friends, its better we all be as one huge community.